The acclaimed historian and author of Caesar presents “a first-rate popular biography” of Rome’s first emperor, written “with a storyteller’s brio” (Washington Post). The story of Augustus’ life is filled with drama and contradiction, risky gambles and unexpected success. He began as a teenage warlord whose only claim to power was as the grand-nephew and heir of the murdered Julius Caesar. Mark Antony dubbed him “a boy who owes everything to a name,” but he soon outmaneuvered a host of more experienced politicians to become the last man standing in 30 BC. Over the next half century, Augustus created a new system of government—the Principate or rule of an emperor—which brought peace and stability to the vast Roman Empire. In this highly anticipated biography, Goldsworthy puts his deep knowledge of ancient sources to full use, recounting the events of Augustus’ long life in greater detail than ever before. Goldsworthy pins down the man behind the myths: a consummate manipulator, propagandist, and showman, both generous and ruthless. Under Augustus’ rule the empire prospered, yet his success was constantly under threat and his life was intensely unpredictable.

He found Rome made of clay and left it made of marble. As Rome’s first emperor, Augustus transformed the unruly Republic into the greatest empire the world had ever seen. His consolidation and expansion of Roman power two thousand years ago laid the foundations, for all of Western history to follow. Yet, despite Augustus’s accomplishments, very few biographers have concentrated on the man himself, instead choosing to chronicle the age in which he lived. Here, Anthony Everitt, the bestselling author of Cicero, gives a spellbinding and intimate account of his illustrious subject. Augustus began his career as an inexperienced teenager plucked from his studies to take center stage in the drama of Roman politics, assisted by two school friends, Agrippa and Maecenas. Augustus’s rise to power began with the assassination of his great-uncle and adoptive father, Julius Caesar, and culminated in the titanic duel with Mark Antony and Cleopatra. The world that made Augustus–and that he himself later remade–was driven by intrigue, sex, ceremony, violence, scandal, and naked ambition. Everitt has taken some of the household names of history–Caesar, Brutus, Cassius, Antony, Cleopatra–whom few know the full truth about, and turned them into flesh-and-blood human beings. At a time when many consider America an empire, this stunning portrait of the greatest emperor who ever lived makes for enlightening and engrossing reading. Everitt brings to life the world of a giant, rendered faithfully and sympathetically in human scale. A study of power and political genius, Augustus is a vivid, compelling biography of one of the most important rulers in history.

Caesar Augustus is the single man who had the most influence over the story of our world. Caesar was a strong personality. He was intriguing, intelligent, strategic, smart and ambitious. His life is full of drama, gambles, risks and success. A true leader of men. In this book we will discover the life of Caesar Augustus, his major accomplishments and the man behind the emperor. A truly unique biography.

Bestselling classical historian Barry Strauss delivers “an exceptionally accessible history of the Roman Empire…much of Ten Caesars reads like a script for Game of Thrones” (The Wall Street Journal)—a summation of three and a half centuries of the Roman Empire as seen through the lives of ten of the most important emperors, from Augustus to Constantine. In this essential and “enlightening” (The New York Times Book Review) work, Barry Strauss tells the story of the Roman Empire from rise to reinvention, from Augustus, who founded the empire, to Constantine, who made it Christian and moved the capital east to Constantinople. During these centuries Rome gained in splendor and territory, then lost both. By the fourth century, the time of Constantine, the Roman Empire had changed so dramatically in geography, ethnicity, religion, and culture that it would have been virtually unrecognizable to Augustus. Rome’s legacy remains today in so many ways, from language, law, and architecture to the seat of the Roman Catholic Church. Strauss examines this enduring heritage through the lives of the men who shaped it: Augustus, Tiberius, Nero, Vespasian, Trajan, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Diocletian, and Constantine. Over the ages, they learned to maintain the family business—the government of an empire—by adapting when necessary and always persevering no matter the cost. Ten Caesars is a “captivating narrative that breathes new life into a host of transformative figures” (Publishers Weekly). This “superb summation of four centuries of Roman history, a masterpiece of compression, confirms Barry Strauss as the foremost academic classicist writing for the general reader today” (The Wall Street Journal).

Propelled to power by the age of 17 by an ambitious mother, self-indulgent to the point of criminality, inadequate, paranoid and the perpetrator of heinous crimes including matricide and fratricide, and deposed and killed by 31, Nero is one of Rome’s most infamous Emperors. But has history treated him fairly? Or is the popular view of Nero as a capricious and depraved individual a travesty of the truth and a gross injustice to Rome's fifth emperor? This new biography will look at Nero’s life with fresh eyes. While showing the man 'warts and all', it also caste a critical eye on the 'libels' which were perpetrated on him, such as claiming he was a madman, many of which were most probably made up to suit the needs of the Flavians, who had overthrown his dynasty.

The authoritative biography of the ancient Roman general and loyal deputy to Emperor Augustus by the acclaimed historian and author of Augustus at War. When Gaius Octavius became the first emperor of Rome, Marcus Agrippa was by his side. As the emperor’s loyal deputy, he waged wars, pacified provinces, beautified Rome, and played a crucial role in establishing the Pax Romana—but he always served knowing that he would never rule in his own name. Why he did so, and never grasped power for himself, has perplexed historians for centuries. In this authoritative biography, historian Lindsay Powell offers a penetrating new assessment of Agrippa’s life and achievements. Following Caesar’s assassination, Agrippa was instrumental in asserting the rights of his friend Gaius Octavius as the dictator’s heir, seeing him crowned Emperor Augustus. Agrippa then established a reputation as a bold admiral, defeating Marcus Antonius and Queen Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium, and ending bloody rebellions in the Cimmerian Bosporus, Gaul, Hispania, and Illyricum. Agrippa was also an influential statesman and architect. He established the vital road network that turned Julius Caesar’s conquests into viable provinces, overhauled Rome’s drains and aqueducts, and built the original Pantheon. Marrying Augustus’s daughter, Julia the Elder, Agrippa became co-ruler of the Roman Empire until his death in 12 BC. His bloodline lived on in the imperial family, through Agrippina the Elder, his grandson Caligula, and great-grandson Nero.

When a teenager named Octavian learned that he was the heir of Julius Caesar, the most powerful man in Rome, it seemed like a recipe for disaster. Caesar had just been assassinated, and in the chaotic world of Roman politics the inexperienced young man would seem to have no chance against men two and three times his age. But Octavian had a genius for politics. Within a year he emerged as one of three leaders of Rome. Just over a decade later he took total control. Soon afterward, the Roman people gave him a new name, Augustus Caesar. It was the name which would make him immortal. He ushered in a period of peace and prosperity, ending decades of civil conflict that had cost thousands of lives. His reign was also characterized by a flourishing of art and architecture. He was the first ruler of the Roman Empire. He was almost certainly the best.

A richly illustrated introduction to the contribution of Roman and provincial coinage to the history of this period, aimed at undergraduates.

Really strong sales of the 1st edition Very accessible with plenty of features such as a Chronology, Glossary, maps and Guide to further reading No real competition at this introductory level

A radical reexamination of the textual and archaeological evidence about Augustus and the Palatine Caesar Augustus (63 BC–AD 14), who is usually thought of as the first Roman emperor, lived on the Palatine Hill, the place from which the word “palace” originates. A startling reassessment of textual and archaeological evidence, The House of Augustus demonstrates that Augustus was never an emperor in any meaningful sense of the word, that he never had a palace, and that the so-called "Casa di Augusto" excavated on the Palatine was a lavish aristocratic house destroyed by the young Caesar in order to build the temple of Apollo. Exploring the Palatine from its first occupation to the present, T. P. Wiseman proposes a reexamination of the "Augustan Age," including much of its literature. Wiseman shows how the political and ideological background of Augustus' rise to power offers a radically different interpretation of the ancient evidence about the Augustan Palatine. Taking a long historical perspective in order to better understand the topography, Wiseman considers the legendary stories of Rome’s origins—in particular Romulus' foundation and inauguration of the city on the summit of the Palatine. He examines the new temple of Apollo and the piazza it overlooked, as well as the portico around it with its library used as a hall for Senate meetings, and he illustrates how Commander Caesar, who became Caesar Augustus, was the champion of the Roman people against an oppressive oligarchy corrupting the Republic. A decisive intervention in a critical debate among ancient historians and archaeologists, The House of Augustus recalibrates our views of a crucially important period and a revered public space.